The Edgewater Hotel redevelopment was sent back to the Edgewater Committee Wednesday, again not clearing the 17 out of 20 votes necessary to pass the Edgewater Neighborhood Commission Focus Group.
""This is unbelievable,"" said an unshaven and disheveled Mayor Dave Cieslewicz on his Edgewater specific blog. ""We created these committees just to pass the thing and now this? I've been awake for three days, and this not passing is just adding to my hallucinations right now.""
""We've been at this for six years, we can do it,"" he added.
Edgewater opponent and snappy dresser Fred Mohs applauded the decision of the commission.
Mohs lives in the historic Edgewater Hill district that would be leveled with strategic dynamite blasts should the project be approved and then the land salted so nothing could grow on it for a hundred years.
""The commission accurately ruled that this new proposal has the lacking edginess and waterview necessary. The parking lot? I wouldn't bury a dead, leprosy-ridden dog in that lot,"" Mohs said.
""This shows the Madison system works: A few cranks, shut-ins and amateur model-builders like me can block a $93 million project,"" Mohs said.
""The nightmare is over… until the proposal gets brought before the Manure, Real Estate and Edgewater Subcommittee in July,"" he said.
Ald. Bridget Maniaci, District 2, said she was disappointed with the ruling and that she will attempt to bring it up before the full Common Council in early October.
Maniaci said the Edgewater, which lies in her district and where most of the district's residents would be housed, would bring valuable amenities to the neighborhood.
""The public terrace makes Memorial Union's terrace look like a landfill covered in cement: smelling like old garbage and excruciatingly boring, similar to so many of the people who oppose this project,"" she said.
Mayor Dave Edgewater said he was confident Edgewater residents and alders would support the project in the end.
However the Urban Development and Edgewater Advisory Study Group was unable to act late last night as they failed to reach a quorum, prompting the mayor to request an emergency videoconference.
""Fuck it, we'll do it live,"" he said.
